


Day Twenty One

by walkerofthestars



Series: Whumptober 2020 [21]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Wally West is Kid Flash, Whumptober 2020, chronic pain hypothermia infection, continuation of Day Seventeen, i don't feel so good, i really shouldn't bother putting the prompts they don't relate at all to this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:00:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28148760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/walkerofthestars/pseuds/walkerofthestars
Summary: Whumptober 2020sequel to Day Seventeen“is this a hostage situation?” Artemis asked, glaring, “do you want something from us?”“uh, the allowance to walk out of here would be nice, but I’m not fussy,” Nightwing said, “either way, I can organise Wally a way back to the mainland for you, whether you’re gonna continue to try and interrogate me or not. The last thing I need is a bored speedster in my HQ.”
Series: Whumptober 2020 [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2055567
Comments: 5
Kudos: 57





	Day Twenty One

**Author's Note:**

> this picks up immediately after the end of day seventeen :)

Wally woke up in an unfamiliar location.

He sat up, wincing, his head hurt and so did his torso, but it was more of a dull ache and less of a pounding, tearing pain so that was a good sign. He was on a hospital gurney, there was a clip on his finger keeping track of his pulse, a screen next to the bed with a BPM line. It was like a room in the private wing of a hospital, just the one bed, a set of drawers nearby, a door out. He looked down at his chest, he was still wearing the Flash suit.

He swivelled and dropped from the bed, slow. His legs were a little achy but he got the feeling it was largely the aftereffects of intense activity quickly ended by no movement at all. He walked to the door, listening in to see if there was anyone outside.

This wasn’t the mountain or watchtower. It didn’t look like any of the hospitals in Central city or Happy Harbour. Where was he?

He heard someone talking, the sound getting slowly louder as they got nearer.

“yeah, I’ll just check on our guest real quick and then join you, gotta get some hours in on watch, pull my weight for once.”

A chuckle, “right, yeah, _for once_. I’ll see you later.”

Wally stepped back from the door just as it opened. In the space now stood a woman about his age, pink hair tied back in a braid, eyes a sparkling purple. She wore dark clothes, baggy and comfortable, and her nails were painted black.

“hi,” Wally said, “where am I?”

The girl blinked, “you shouldn’t be up, you’ll strain yourself,” she said, as if on autopilot.

“speed healing, I’m good, name’s Flash,” he held out a hand for her to shake.

“uh, Jinx,” she said, then shook her head and composed herself, “uh, do you want a change of clothes? Your uniform’s pretty ratty. I can get you a mask.”

Wally gaped, “I… yeah, okay. Thanks.”

Jinx nodded and turned away, “just stay here for now, okay?”

He leant out the doorway, “you never said where I was.”

She turned around with a smile, “Lanina Island, main headquarters of The Achos Nation.”

Fourteen years before this a boy sat, curled on a window seat, in a very old manor in a very old city.

The door creaked open, Bruce standing there awkwardly. He was wearing a suit, just home from work. He moved into the room quietly, feeling like a stranger in this environment. He crouched down by the seat, the boy was taking up all the room, and waited for him to acknowledge his presence.

He didn’t.

“hey chum,” he said, and he was quite sure he had never spoken so softly in his life, “you want to talk about it?”

He blinked, head leaning against the window. He made no other movement that suggested he’d heard Bruce.

“do you want me with you, or would you rather be alone?” Bruce asked. He knew all too well that sometimes a mere silent companion helped enormously in times like this, but just as well Dick may prefer to be alone.

He swallowed, his eyes shining slightly with tears he refused to let out.

“am I a charity case?” he asked. There was no emotion in his tone.

Bruce stared, absolutely dumbstruck.

“of course not, chum,” Bruce said.

“that’s what everyone thinks,” Dick said, “at school.”

Bruce sighed, shoulders drooping. He’d been afraid of this.

“I took you in because you reminded me of myself,” Bruce said, “and that’s a scary thing.”

Dick frowned, “but…” he finally moved his head, looking down at Bruce, “but you’re Batman. you’re a hero. Why wouldn’t I want to be like you?”

Bruce stood slightly and Dick moved his legs so he could sit on the window seat with him.

“I’m an angry person, a sad person,” Bruce said, “I’m… not a hero.”

“but you save people.”

“heroes are supposed to inspire others to do good,” Bruce said, “Batman inspires people to fear. He may save people, but the good are just as afraid as the bad.”

“I’m not.”

“no,” Bruce said, the smallest of smiles tugging at his mouth, “but you’re a bit special in that regard.”

Dick snorted, looking out the window.

“hey,” Bruce said, getting his attention once more, “you know who _is_ a hero?”

Dick frowned, confused.

“Robin.”

He blinked, staring at Bruce.

“Robin is a hero. People are inspired by him, people feel safe because of him,” Bruce said, he drifted a hand to his ward’s shoulder. It was amazing that such a small, young boy could be the staple of so much hope, “Robin is what Batman can never be. And you made him that, Dick. It doesn’t matter what the kids at school think, what the press think. You make yourself your own person.”

“but what if something happened and Robin got blamed for it,” Dick said.

Bruce shook his head, “it doesn’t matter,” he said, “if you try to do good then you have succeeded. In the end, the people who matter will know who you really are.” Bruce smiled, poking him in the chest, right over his heart, “a hero.”

Dick launched himself into Bruce’s arms, the hug something he’d been wanting since he’d stepped into the gates at school. Bruce was happy to oblige.

“can I ask what prompted this worry?”

Dick shook his head, “I don’t want to talk about it.” he smiled, “it’s not important.”

“hey,” Bruce pulled him out of the hug, “it obviously affected you, that makes it important.”

Dick shrugged, “just…” he rubbed at the back of his neck, “tell you when I’m ready.”

Bruce nodded, “okay.”

And for years that became their code. One would ask another about something the other couldn’t quite word, couldn’t quite explain. ‘tell you when I’m ready’ became a simple explanation as to why. Eventually it was nothing special, just a phrase they said to each other in a time when they were too tired to explain, too busy to explain. But they knew what it meant.

“you have a lot of explaining to do,” Batman said, “and you are not leaving this room until it’s finished.”

Nightwing and Raven shared a look.

“should we knock him out and run for it?” she asked.

“no, hey, come on,” Dick said, “let’s have a bit more tact than that.”

“just saying,” Raven shrugged, “those leaguers are getting pretty antsy, I don’t think they’ll let you walk out unless you give them a full explanation, whether Batman vouches or not.”

Bruce raised an eyebrow.

Nightwing crossed his arms and leaned against the table.

“what do you want to know?” he asked Batman. Raven took up guard at the door.

“everything would be preferable,” Batman said.

“okay, look,” Dick sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “I escaped the light after about four years but couldn’t come to you guys because it would put you in danger. I have since created the Achos Nation as a means to save other people from the light and, hopefully, take them down. We were investigating an old hideout of theirs when your team came barreling in.”

“why did the Light capture you?” Bruce asked, it seemed for any answer Dick gave he merely managed another two questions, “how did you escape? How did you build...” he gestured as if to say, ‘all of this mess’ but settled for, “an entire organisation, on your own.”

“I had help,” Dick said, smiling, “like for instance, Raven came up with the name.”

“just…” Bruce rubbed at his face, “explain things, can you do that?”

Dick sighed, knowing full well that the longer this took the more likely the league would go into uproar about Wally’s disappearance and start looking for answers. He needed to get back to the island _now_ , he had an organisation to run.

He looked at Bruce, pursed his lips.

“tell you when I’m ready,” he said.

Bruce’s eyes widened a fraction, seemingly surprised by the old statement. He took a deep breath and nodded.

“okay.”

Dick nodded, “okay.” he took a deep breath, “alright, we need to get back to our people. We also need to get Wally back here before the league starts worrying too much. And then it’s back to the usual daily grind.”

Bruce nodded. He composed himself, then turned to the door and unlocked it, strode out, gesturing for them to follow.

He guided them out to the main room of the mountain where the few members of the team who’d been on the mission were talking with their mentors in the league.

“Wally disappeared, he’s not answering his phone, he’s clearly in danger, we need to go out and find him,” Artemis said, scowling as she made her case to Canary.

“belay that,” Bruce said as he entered the room.

“what he is he doing out?” Green Arrow said, eyes landing on Nightwing, “and who is she? When did she get in here?”

“I’m Raven,” she said, “I snuck in, it’s my specialty.”

The leaguers gaped at her, confused.

“Wally is safe,” Nightwing said, “he was injured in the skirmish, I’ve got contact with my people, they took him to get patched up before he bled out.”

“you have Wally?!” Artemis glared at him, storming forward, “if you touch him-“

“Artemis, calm down,” Batman ordered.

“Batman, why isn’t he restrained?” Canary asked, keeping a level head.

Nightwing rolled his eyes and pulled up a hologram from his glove. It called the frequency he’d already prepared, the other side picking up immediately. The screen showed the meeting room in the main building of their headquarters. There was a giant circular table that took up the middle of the room, the sides weren’t walls but instead columns that held up a glass ceiling. In the background someone flew in, landing on the floor with ease. The foreground held the faces of Jade, her Cheshire mask sitting on her hip, Arsenal, sitting in one of the chairs, Jinx, perched on the table, and Wally in civilian clothes plus a mask, standing very awkwardly.

“Wally!” M’Gann went wide eyed and moved closer to the screen.

“uh, hi guys,” he said, smiling awkwardly, “I’m gonna need a ride home.”

Jinx snorted, “more like a _lift_.”

“Nightwing, if you leave me in charge of these bozos again without warning I will kill you,” Jade said, dead pan.

“right, sure, next time I get captured I’ll send you a memo first,” Dick said, almost as dead pan as her.

“is this a hostage situation?” Artemis asked, glaring, “do you want something from us?”

“uh, the allowance to walk out of here would be nice, but I’m not fussy,” Nightwing said, “either way, I can organise Wally a way back to the mainland for you, whether you’re gonna continue to try and interrogate me or not. The last thing I need is a bored speedster in my HQ.”

“why don’t we go with you to this HQ,” Red Arrow said, staring at the screen.

“ha, great idea,” Raven said with no humour in her voice, “why don’t we just let you have a sleep over and everything, sounds fun.”

“how about this,” Bruce said, turning to Nightwing, “we let you go back to your people, provided you take a small squad with you to collect Flash.”

Nightwing responded with a glare, “that’s gonna be a no from me.”

“you want us to trust you?” Superman stepped forward, “here’s the terms; two way street. You know everything about us, time for you to be a bit more forthcoming.”

Nightwing and Raven shared the same expression, a glare of complete annoyance levelled on everyone else in the room.

“if it helps,” Arsenal said, “I’m with them.”

“it doesn’t help _at all_ ,” Jade snapped at him.

“I think this is something we should vote on?” the person who’d flown in at the beginning said. They had bright fiery hair and green eyes, wearing purple clothes.

“yeah, all in favour that hiding is stupid cause everyone knows we exist now and the easiest way to take down the light is to work together with the league,” Arsenal said, raising a hand. The occupants of the room stared at him.

“do we… know you?” Artemis stared confused at Arsenal. He looked extremely familiar.

Arsenal grinned, leaning back in his chair and kicking his feet on the table, “in a sense.”

“how can we believe that you people are working _against_ the light when you’re harbouring a known member?” Artemis said, glaring at her sister.

“aww, no soft spot for your sister dearest?” Jade drawled.

“none at all,” Artemis scowled.

Nightwing rolled his eyes, “look, I can agree to those terms, provided the squad is _small_.”

He had to admit the point had been made. If he was going to gain the degree of trust necessary to continue working under the radar while the league was aware of them then he would need to give them this small peace of mind. sure, he could easily say who he was like he had with Bruce and get them off his back, but the whole point of creating his own organisation to begin with was the fact that the league _couldn’t_ know who he was.

“I’m going,” Artemis said before any other terms could be laid. Red Arrow seconded that.

“we’ll take the bio-ship,” M’Gann offered.

“wait-“ before Canary could continue arguing, Conner piped in.

“it was us who did this mission,” he said, “we should be the ones to go collect Wally.”

Kaldur nodded.

Batman said, “agreed.” Before the other leaguers could say anything. In mere seconds they lost any chance of taking the situation under control.

“great, I’ll tell Beast Boy and Cy to make food,” Starfire said, smiling and flying off.

Jinx sighed, “guess we’ve got guests coming.”

“this is purely for business purposes,” Jade reminded them.

“can you guys bring me some of my snacks from the cupboard at the mountain?” Wally asked.

Nightwing rolled his eyes and deactivated the call and his holo-screen.

“the ship’s this way,” M’Gann smiled, leading them to the hangar.

Dick really hoped this didn’t go as horribly wrong as he feared it would.

Nightwing was right, the last thing he needed in his HQ was a bored speedster. Especially Wally West.

The meeting room had been at the top of a _huge_ building, so he got a full view of the island, 360 degrees. To the southside was a small city, the entire edge of the island was a beach and there was a gorgeous looking forest that sat on the north side of the structures. The city was south of a different section, marked out by a fence with a few guards along it. they checked anyone entering the city, from wat he could tell they were removing weapons. The city must be some form of residential area, no fighting allowed.

Which made very little sense for a society of supposed assassins.

Wally had changed into the civilian clothes and mask, but he didn’t accept the food they offered him. he wasn’t entirely convinced of their good nature yet. Once the call ended he wanted to start snooping.

“Okay, who’s on ‘watch the speedster’ duty?” Jade asked, turning to them all.

“I don’t need a baby sitter,” Wally said.

“don’t care,” Jade smiled, “Jinx, you want to?”

“why can’t you?” she asked.

“I’ve gotta head home, I didn’t leave Lian a baby sitter,” she said.

“you brought your kid to an island of assassins? Why am I not surprised?” Wally snorted.

Arsenal laughed at him, standing from the table, “okay bozos, have fun dealing with him.”

“I nominate Arsenal for babysitting duty,” jinx said, “he doesn’t have a watch shift till tomorrow and he’s got no other active tasks to do, I checked.”

“you little-“

“seconded, Arenal, keep your eye on the speedster, make sure he doesn’t break into anything,” Jade ordered.

“what?” he stared, gaping at them, “oh, come on! I have plans!”

“sucking face with Jason on a couch while watching scary movies isn’t ‘plans’, Roy,” Jinx snickered. He flipped her off and she made a portal, disappearing into pink magic, the last thing visible her own middle finger.

“have fun,” Jade said, walking to the stairs.

Arsenal groaned.

Wally gasped and pointed at him, “oh my god I just figured out who you are!”

“you’ve got to be kidding me,” Arsenal said.

“you’re the original Roy Harper!”

“no _shit_ ,” Roy scowled, “and now I’m stuck with you.”

“hey, your clone and I are best buds,” Wally crossed his arms.

“good for him,” Arsenal’s glare didn’t let up, “now come on, you haven’t eaten in hours, that’s not good for speedsters.”

“aww you do care,” Wally said, following him to the stairs.

“no, but if you die I’ll never hear the end of it,” he continued to glare at everything as he guided Wally down the stairs to the floor below where an elevator was present. He clicked the button.

“so where are we going? Do you guys have like a mess hall?”

Arsenal crossed his arms, waiting for the lift, “no, we have a city.”

Wally followed him into the elevator which eventually opened on the bottom floor. It was a huge foyer with hallways that branched off to other rooms. They walked straight out the front door, made of glass, and followed the concrete pathway that went past several other buildings.

“is this… all for your headquarters?” Wally asked. One of the buildings seemed to be some kind of giant gym, but he couldn’t tell, the door was only a little open.

“these main five buildings, yeah,” Arsenal explained, “everywhere outside the fence is the city, some of us call it Troy as a joke.”

“right, yeah, Artemis told me about the name and stuff,” Wally said, “very smart.”

They strode up to the gap in the fence, two people were chatting, leaning against it.

“hey bozos,” Roy greeted. Wally looked at the two, one was a tall woman with silver hair wearing a copper and black uniform, the other was a normal looking man wearing all kinds of gear.

“hey asshole,” the woman greeted with a smile, “where’s Jay?”

“home, probably eating all my fucking snacks,” Arsenal grumbled, he gestured at Wally, “I’m getting this one some food.”

“cool,” the woman shrugged, “You know the rules.”

“I do not actually,” Wally said, smiling sheepishly.

“weapons are allowed, but have to be in sheaths or pouches and the like, and not concealed,” the man said, pointing at a sheath on his thigh where a knife was comfortably held, the hilt was clearly visible, “we’ve got plenty of people in there who _will_ get triggered by the sight of flashing blades and stuff, the whole point of this place is for them to feel safe.”

“defence only,” the woman explained, “you start something you _will_ be dragged out, it’s a safe zone.”

Wally gestured to his clothes, “I ain’t got no weapons on me.”

“all mine are pretty visible,” Arsenal said, “that’s the point.”

“come on, dude, you know the drill, you don’t need to carry around a small armoury wherever you go.”

“that’s the whole point with me,” Arsenal said. But he slung his quiver from his shoulders and unclipped the belt of gear on his hips. Wally wouldn’t kid himself into thinking he was less dangerous now, he had plenty more things on him.

The two guards let them through.

“so, this city is for…?”

“it’s for members of the Achos Nation,” Roy explained, “a safe place to live for themselves and their families. Plus anyone who wanted to escape the light or other crazy assholes.” He shrugged, “some people don’t want to have secret identities set up for them in random countries, for those people we have this place.”

“so it’s like a relief city,” Wally said, “for people whose lives were ruined.”

“yep,” Roy said, “it’s why Cheshire’s here. She used to work for the shadows, but then she had a kid and… I don’t know, I guess it changed her perspective on things,” he shoved his hands in his pockets, “she wanted out and the only way she could do it was to ask Nightwing. She works here now to take down the light, she’s got a house on the West side.”

“Ew,” Wally said, “East side all the way.”

“right?” Arsenal snickered.

As they followed the path houses started appearing more, anything from small suburban homes to modern and sleek buildings. They slowly grew closer and closer together with each few metres till eventually they became bigger buildings with flats, corner stores dotting among the place, a café here and a book store there. once they hit that point it very quickly became urban sprawl right up to an esplanade overlooking the beach.

“how many people live here?” Wally asked.

“about 20 000. Active members, plus civilian residents. Anytime we take down a piece of the league of assassins or other organisations like it we tend to get groups of people moving in,” Roy said, “it’s small, but we make up for it with the amount of ridiculous crap we like to do.”

“yeah, I don’t expect a bunch of meta humans and the like to be ordinary neighbours.”

“we have plenty of people who stop by, to,” Roy shrugged, “non-permanent residents. Informants from around the world and such, family visiting, people we’ve given false identities to start up elsewhere.”

“oh my god,” Wally fake gasped, “this has to be the _only_ city in the world without a McDonalds.”

Arsenal burst out laughing, “I like how that’s where your mind goes.”

“well, hey I’m hungry,” Wally defended, “where are we eating?”

Arsenal nodded towards a café down the block, “there, if I’m gonna deal with you I’m gonna eat some decent food while doing so.” He started walking faster to get to it.

“cool, cool,” Wally said catching up, “wait, what currency do you use here?”

“what’s the face?” Conner asked Artemis.

“I just got this weird feeling, like I really need to slap Wally for doing something stupid,” she answered.

“wouldn’t that be a constant feeling?” Dick grinned. Artemis only glared at him and went back to staring out the window.

“ouch, okay,” Dick said, leaning back in his chair.

“how much further M’Gann?” Artemis asked.

No answer.

“M’Gann?”

They turned to her, she was staring out the windscreen in confusion.

“you okay?” Conner asked her.

“I…” she trailed off, frowning into the distance. She then stopped the ship and turned around.

“hey, what,” Artemis said, “M’Gann the directions say _that_ way.” She pointed back.

“oh, we’ve hit the perception filter,” Dick stood, “let me take the wheel.”

“like hell,” Conner said. Managing to get M’Gann to turn back. She rubbed at her head, confused and dazed.

“no, seriously, there’s thousands of spells around the perimeter of the island for a good three hundred mile radius, it’ll keep getting her to turn back,” Dick explained, “let me take it, they don’t effect me.”

“do you think I’m stupid?” Conner snorted, “you’re not flying the ship.”

“if I wanted to hurt you lot I’d have done it by now,” Dick said.

“oh, thanks for the vote of confidence,” Artemis scoffed.

“I think it best you retake your seat, Nightwing,” Kaldur warned.

Dick groaned but took a step towards M’Gann. He reached over and placed one hand on the glowing controls of the ship.

“hey-“

“no, wait,” M’Gann waved Conner away, “the ship…”

She looked up at him, completely bewildered. He felt her tap against his mind and he let her in enough to converse.

_“the ship recognises you?”_

_“It’s a long story,”_ he said, unsure of how far he could push this.

She watched him, not pressing further into his mind. she blinked, seemingly realising something. She gave him a sad look, head tilted. She stood from the seat.

“fly us there.”

He nodded and sat down.

“M’Gann, you can’t be serious,” Artemis hissed.

She sat down next to her, “it’s fine.”

He flew them through the perception filters and all the other safety precautions that were present. Eventually they passed the final shield, which hid the island completely. They flew straight through, the island beneath them, green and yellow and grey, sunlight reflecting off the glass. The team stared at the city, bug eyed.

“welcome,” Dick said, smiling, unable to keep the pride from his voice, “to Lanina Island.”

They set down on one of the rooftops of the taller buildings in the city. Dick had been sent a message that Arsenal took Wally into the city so he may as well let the team meet up with them where ever they were. It came with the added benefit of them not being anywhere near the actual HQ, so they would only be seeing the residential area.

They walked out, the wind whipping at their hair. The team took in the sight.

“this… is your HQ?” Artemis asked, frowning at the sprawl.

“it’s the residential area,” Raven said, she cast a circle of runes around her, “step on, we’ll float down.”

The team looked between themselves, very clearly not knowing if they could trust Raven’s magic. But they stepped on and she floated them down to the street. School was out for the day so there were kids and teens running past or riding bikes. The place wasn’t big enough to bother with cars.

Kaldur stared at the small smattering of a crowd.

“that kid is graffitiing that building,” Red Arrow pointed out, Dick followed the direction of his look.

He smiled, “hey Zach!” he called out and the kid looked over, halfway through spray painting a stencil, “there’s an empty spot by Clyde’s gym, check it out!”

The teen gave him a thumbs up and a grin, then finished spraying on the stencil.

“okay,” Kaldur said, “that’s…”

Nightwing chuckled and started walking down the street, dialling Arsenal’s number in his phone. He answered quickly.

_“hey, how far off are you?”_

“outside the bright blue apartment complex,” he said, “you know the one. Where are you, is Wally still with you?”

_“yeah, we’re at Nat’s café.”_

“cool, see you in five.”

He hung up and stuffed his phone back in his belt.

“come on, they’re this way,” he said. The team followed him, gaping at the scenery.

M’Gann flew to catch up with him, “we need to talk.”

“evidently,” he said.

“no,” she looked at him pleadingly, “like we _really_ need to talk.”

Dick wouldn’t be surprised if she’d figured it out. I mean, how many black-haired, sarcastic, non-meta vigilantes were there that could not only fly a Martian bio-ship but also be recognised by specifically _hers_? Dick imagined the answer to that question was exactly one.

“yeah, I know,” Dick said, “let’s get Wally first.”

She grabbed his arm, “and when we do, that conversation? It’ll include him. and Artemis. And Conner and Kaldur and Roy.”

Dick pursed his lips, “best not.”

“no more lies,” M’Gann said, voice low so the others couldn’t hear, “trust is a two way street or a broken one.”

He wouldn’t look at her, if he did he’d probably crumble. In all ways she was right and in all ways he was overly paranoid. The way it was, them knowing who he was wouldn’t make them any bigger targets to the light than they already were, at this point the targets had been painted. The only thing keeping Dick from telling them all was… well…

He supposed he didn’t want his childhood friends to know he was now a weapon designed to kill them.

He swallowed, “yeah, okay.”

He guided them down a few streets and to the café in question, Wally looked very out of place. He sat staring at everything with wide, confused eyes. Roy was in the middle of chatting with someone, the two tucked into the corner of the café. There were empty mugs on the table and three plates stacked on top of each other, only crumbs left.

They spotted them through the window and Roy bid farewell to the person they were chatting to, striding out of the café with Wally in tow.

“I trust he didn’t break anything,” Nightwing said as a greeting.

“didn’t get a chance,” Wally defended, “dude, this place is _wack_.”

“I don’t know if I should take that as a compliment or an insult,” Dick said, frowning.

“honestly? A bit of both,” Wally said, “dude, this is a whole ass _city_ , which is awesome. But also… does the fact it’s not recognised by the rest of the world mean you’ve been dodging taxes all this time?”

Dick burst out laughing, the comment catching him entirely off guard, _“What?”_

“look, it’s a worthwhile question to ask,” Wally said.

“how do you get the electricity?” Red Arrow asked.

“mix of solar and wind,” Raven explained, as Dick was too busy silently laughing at Wally, “we’ve got backup generators as well, and magical means of creating energy.”

“yeah, cool,” Wally said, “guys, how do we go back to the league and explain that these guys aren’t a branch of the light? Because it’s kinda hard without seeing all this.”

“we don’t know that for sure yet, Baywatch,” Artemis said.

“you wanna go see your sister and ask her?”

“I trust her less than I trust him,” she said, pointing a thumb at Nightwing.

“not to interrupt,” Arsenal said, stepping forwards, “but can I go?”

Red Arrow narrowed his eyes on him, “wait a minute,” he stalked forwards, “you’ve got to be shitting me.”

“what, finally connect the dots?” Arsenal asked, smirking at his clone, “how’s it feel to meet the OG?”

“you got any other random clones or people who used to work in the league?” Conner asked, staring at Dick with his arms crossed.

“oh yeah, everyone who’s ever disappeared is just chilling out on this island,” Wally snorted.

“actually, not everyone, but Jason’s here,” Dick said with a shrug. Every stared at Wally.

“I swear I was kidding,” he muttered.

“and I think there’s someone else we’d recognise,” M’Gann said, giving Dick a pointed look.

He pursed his lips.

“what are you getting at M’Gann?” Wally asked.

“arsenal, head home,” Dick said, “you lot, follow me.”

He guided them to his place, a large apartment on the esplanade of the city. The front door was glass and opened onto a patio with a view of the ocean. It was open plan, with the lounge, dining area and kitchen all within sight of the door. Down a hall were two bedrooms and a bathroom.

The door closed behind Raven, who asked with worried eyes, “you sure you want to tell them?”

“M’gann’s already figured it out,” Dick said.

“what?” Conner frowned, looking at his girlfriend, “what did you figure out?”

“the bio-ship recognised him,” she said, eyes following as he leant against the breakfast bar, “and he knew how to fly it. and he knows our identities, and he said something to Batman that made him trust him.”

“yeah, and?” Roy said, staring at Dick.

“how old are you?’ she asked him.

“twenty-three.” He crossed his arms. He didn’t know if she’d say it or if he would or if they’d wait for the others to figure it out.

She pursed her lips, the sad look returning to her face, “ten years.”

He shrugged, allowing a small sad smile to drift past his façade. `

Wally stared at him, utterly confused. Dick watched as it slowly dawned on him, his eyes widening and his shoulders going slack. He fell backwards onto the couch, staring and gaping.

“no way,” he said, “ _no way_.”

Roy was still giving him the confused look, “ten years since what?”

“ten years since I died,” he said.

The team stared. Roy was the next one to figure it out, Dick watched the gears turn and then click into place.

“oh my god,” he breathed the words, they were half air, “that’s not possible.”

As the words were said it seemed to dawn on the rest of the team.

“Lazarus pits,” Dick said, and he peeled off the mask.

Wally was the first to hug him, he crashed into Dick’s side like a speeding bullet and started sobbing into his shoulder.

“okay, that’s a bit of an overreaction,” Dick said.

“we thought you were dead,” M’Gann said, joining the hug, “how is that an overreaction?”

Dick laughed awkwardly, “look, uh,” he slowly extricated himself from the two, “not much of a hugger.”

“can you take a punch?” Artemis scowled, stalking forward, “cause I think I’ll go for that.”

“I’d probably deserve it,” Dick said.

As if the mere idea that he wouldn’t be angry about it took all the fight from her, Artemis’ face dropped. She grabbed him in a hug.

“yeah, okay, just finished saying I’m not a hugger.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, “I just…”

He pulled her away from him but gave her a smile, “it’s fine.”

“well, if we’re not going for physical coping methods, can we go for alcoholic ones?” Roy suggested, “cause I think I could do with a beer.”

“you and me both,” Conner said, staring at Dick as if he didn’t believe he was real.

“yeah, I’ve got a pretty stocked liquor cabinet,” Dick said, “Raven, you wanna break into it while I have a shower?”

“definitely, you stink,” she said, heading into the kitchen and opening up the cupboard.

Before he could disappear down the hall Roy grabbed his arm.

“Jade’s here?” he asked.

“yeah, Lian, too,” he said, “you wanna visit?”

Roy nodded mutely, then stuttered out, “later, though.”

Dick nodded. Turning back down the hall but faltering.

“Roy,” he said, and the ginger looked at him, eyes betraying how completely lost he was, “she forgives you for disappearing. And Lian just wants to know her dad.”

Roy nodded, turned away silently.

It would seem Dick had a lot of work to do.


End file.
